South Coast Air Quality Management District

California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District has moved closer to supporting a $25.5 million Kore Infrastructure project to produce RNG/renewable natural gas from municipal waste-derived biomethane – and use it to power vehicles with the new Near Zero variant of the 8.9-liter Cummins Westport ISL G engine.

SCAQMD proposes to ante $1 million, plus $1.5 million from the BP Arco Settlement Projects Fund, in support of the project in Rialto, immediately west of San Bernardino. Kore’s share is $23 million.

“Kore Infrastructure is proposing to construct a new full-scale modular biomethane production facility in Rialto, using a proprietary process developed and demonstrated over a six-year period at a local wastewater plant,” AQMD says.

‘A Fully Integrated System’ for RNG Production

“The proposed facility will utilize a fully integrated system to process biosolids into RNG, utilizing biosolids from local wastewater agencies and converting the energy into RNG that can be used locally as transportation fuel in the next generation natural gas engines that are certified to achieve 90% lower NOx emissions than the existing 2010 heavy-duty engine exhaust emissions standard.”

SCAQMD and partner agencies are already backing the placement of transit and refuse vehicles with the Cummins Westport ISL G NZ (F&F, May 13), and shortly after the engine’s certification was announced last year moved to support development of a Near Zero variant of the 11.9-liter ISX12 G (F&F, October 13, 2015).

Advantages of the Near Zero-biomethane combination of combination have been detailed by Fleets & Fuels publisher Gladstein, Neandross & Associates in a 192-page white paper dubbed Game Changer (F&F, May 10). SCAQMD helped fund GNA’s Game Changer initiative, as did the Southern California Gas and Pacific Gas and Electric utilities, the California Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership, the American Gas Association, Agility Fuel Systems and Clean Energy Fuels.

GNA president Cliff Gladstein and SCAQMD deputy executive officer for science & technology Matt Miyasato at the special Game Changer session at ACT Expo 2016 this past May (F&F, May 10).

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The South Coast Air Quality Management District is presenting a complimentary one-hour webinar to help applicants learn about the $50 million in new Proposition 1B funding for the replacement of heavy-duty goods movement trucks and transport refrigeration units. The webinar takes place on Thursday, June 23 at 2:00pm Pacific time.Read More >>

The South Coast Air Quality Management District board has approved outlays of nearly $52 million for the agency’s Goods Movement Program under California’s Proposition 1B statute. Prop 1B funding is provided by the California Air Resources Board.

The big winner…

Upwards of $26 million of the CARB money will support the deployment of several hundred natural gas-fueled trucks – 263 of them with the super-low NOx ISL G Near Zero engine from Cummins Westport. It will also support the purchase of more than 60 hybrid replacement and zero emission replacement trucks, as well as charging infrastructure and electric TRUs – transport refrigeration units.

$15 Million for Near Zero Mixers

Irvine, Calif.-based CalPortland/Catalina Pacific is to be the standout recipient, as the firm has been designated to receive $100,000 for each of 150 trucks with the 8.9-liter ISL G NZ.

The engine was certified last year to the optional California Air Resources Board’s options NOx emissions standard of 0.02 grams per brake-horsepower hour — 90% lower than the current EPA heavy-duty engine standards (F&F, September 17).

Heavy duty vehicles with well-to-wheel emissions levels approaching nil are possible today given the combination of new “Near Zero” engine technology from Cummins Westport and the use of RNG – renewable natural gas.Read More >>

The California Air Resources Board has awarded $23.6 million to the South Coast Air Quality Management District for electric-powered port trucks, doing so at ACT Expo 2016 in Long Beach this past Wednesday.Read More >>

October 21, 2015 was the day targeted in the iconic 1985 fantasy film Back to the Future with its celebration of the “Mr. Fusion Energy Compactor” for turning garbage into energy.

Indeed Mr. Fusion is with us now, although we call it the anaerobic digester. All manner of organic waste is processed into biogas, and upgraded into biomethane, suitably for fueling vehicles or for injection into the pipeline grid.

Appropriately, California’s CR&R Waste & Recycling, which expects by this coming fourth quarter to be producing organic refuse-derived biomethane to fuel its natural gas truck fleet (F&F, September 21) has just been awarded $900,000 by California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District to help see it though.

Meanwhile, anyone have a flux capacitor? We’d like to take a peek at 2045.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District and allied organizations in California are looking to put together a $5.25 million funding package for a “Near Zero” version of the dedicated-natural gas 11.9-liter ISX12 G engine by Cummins Westport.Read More >>

Siemens reports the start of construction on an “eHighway” project in Carson, Calif. serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The goal is for electric drive trucks to run (and in some cases charge) on grid power in the traffic- and population-dense harbor area, before splitting off to their destinations.Read More >>

Utility Receives 22 Trucks with Terex XT55 LiftsAs the First Under EPRI-DoE-SCAQMD Initiative

Philadelphia’s Peco utility is talking up receipt of 22 Ford chassis bucket trucks with Odyne plug-in hybrid electric drivetrains – the first to be deployed under a joint U.S. Department of Energy, Electric Power Research Institute, and South Coast Air Quality Management District program.Read More >>

ACT Expo 2014, this year’s Alternative Clean Technology Expo & Conference is less than two weeks away. Organizer (and Fleets & Fuels publisher) Gladstein, Neandross & Associates said this week that there will be upwards of 70 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles, across all alternative fuels and weight classes, on display or in the event ride-and-drive. this item was originally posted on April 22Read More >>

Existing clean air and greenhouse gas goals in California won’t be met without a new generation of technologies for heavy duty vehicles. The likelihood is that the same aggressive designs now being applied to make diesel acceptably clean will be applied to natural gas-fueled buses and trucks to make them even cleaner than they are today.Read More >>

A key part of the funding equation fell into place last week as the California Energy Commission said it’s awarding $1.6 million to retrofit five heavy duty trucks to run on power from an overhead catenary wire using the Siemens pantograph system – part of a $13.5 million program.Read More >>

Wisconsin’s Odyne Systems is participating in a $45.4 million U.S. DoE ARRA-backed initiative with the Electric Power Research Institute and Southern California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District. updated June 19Read More >>

The MSRC affiliate of California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District is readying a two-year program backed by “an unprecedented $38.5 million for innovative projects and programs in the South Coast region to help reduce harmful emissions from vehicles.”Read More >>